New regulations drafted for market price data reporting

The Hanoitimes - The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is drafting a circular on collecting and reporting market prices in a move to standardize the information and better control the country’s inflation.

The list of commodities and services subjected to the newly-recommended market price reporting regime includes essential commodities that can represent groups of goods and services relating to food, construction materials, medicines and medical services, transportation, education, entertainment and tourism.

The commodities included in the price report include rice.

According to the draft, which is posted in MoF’s e-Portal for recommendations, the finance departments in centrally-run cities and provinces nationwide will have to send monthly, quarterly and annual reports on market prices of commodities in their localities to the MoF’s Price Management Department.Reports will include information on the evolution of the consumer price index (CPI) calculated within each locality, together with analysis on the status and the causes of the factors affecting CPI.The reports also evaluate the efficiency of local management and administration of prices, including the price management of some important and essential goods in the locality and the promulgation of legal documents related to commodities’ market prices.In addition, the reports will also forecast the CPI and the market price situation in the next period.In case of abnormal fluctuations in prices, the provincial and municipal Department of Finance have to make irregular reports on price fluctuations of some essential goods and services in the locality.The commodities included in the price report include rice, pork, beef, chicken, fish, shrimp and seasonal vegetables (for food), cement, construction steel, sand, bricks (for construction materials), car fare, bus fare, taxi fare (for transportation services), tuition fees of public kindergartens, public school fees and university fees (for education).As for CPI, the MoF’s Price Management Department recently forecast the index will inch down in May against last month without too many unexpected fluctuations in prices of essential goods.May is the harvest season for many kinds of food products so the prices of these commodities are predicted to decrease slightly. At this moment, localities have also strengthened management and stability for price.The department said the strengthening of management and operation activities for price stabilization by ministries, sectors and localities would keep market prices from unexpected fluctuations in the coming months.As of now, the petrol price, one among numerous factors that create pressure on the CPI, has complicated the fluctuations. However, the price increase of this commodity is forecast to be not as high as the world petrol prices. In the past, the petrol price in the domestic market was managed properly by flexible use of the petrol price stabilization fund.The Steering Committee on Price Management has proposed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in operating the domestic petrol prices in harmony and using the Price Stabilization Fund in a proper manner.They should actively have scenarios dealing with the increase of petrol prices in the second quarter on the world market to create favorable conditions to control the CPI for this year.The price for the group of housing and construction material products is forecast to increase because the hot weather would increase the prices of electricity and water.The other main reason for this increase is the high price of steel and steel products in recent months because of China’s production cuts.However, there are also some factors reducing the pressure on increasing the CPI in May 2018. For instance, the rice price may fall due to an increase in the supply of rice during the rice harvest season. Consumption of some fresh food items such as pork and poultry meat often reduces during the hot weather.